Questões de Inglês

Skillset vs. Mindset: Which Will Get You the Job?

By Heather Huhman

There’s a debate going on among career
experts about which is more important: skillset or
mindset. While skills are certainly desirable for many
positions, does having the right ones guarantee
you’ll get the job?

What if you have the mindset to get the work
accomplished, but currently lack certain skills
requested by the employer? Jennifer Fremont-Smith,
CEO of Smarterer, and Paul G. Stoltz, PhD, coauthor
of Put Your Mindset to Work: The One Asset
You Really Need to Win and Keep the Job You Love,
recently sat down with U.S. Newsto sound off on this
issue.

Heather: What is more important to today’s
employers: skillset or mindset? Why?

Jennifer: For many jobs, skillset needs to come
first. The employer absolutely must find people who
have the hard skills to do whatever it is they are being
hired to do. Programmers have to know how to program.
Data analysts need to know how to crunch numbers in
Excel. Marketers must know their marketing tools and
software. Social media managers must know the tools
of their trade like Twitter, Facebook, WordPress, and
have writing and communication skills.
After the employers have identified candidates
with these hard skills, they can shift their focus to their
candidates’ mindsets - attitude, integrity, work ethic,
personality, etc.

Paul: Mindset utterly trumps skillset.
Heather: Do you have any data or statistics to
back up your argument?
Jennifer: Despite record high unemployment,
many jobs sit empty because employers can’t find
candidates with the right skills. In a recent survey
cited in the Wall Street Journal, over 50 percent of
companies reported difficulty finding applicants with
the right skills. Companies are running lean and mean
in this economy – they don’t have the time to train for
those key skills.
Paul: [Co-author James Reed and I] asked
tens of thousands of top employers worldwide this
question: If you were hiring someone today, which
would you pick, a ) the person with the perfect skills
and qualifications, but lacking the desired mindset, or
B) the person with the desired mindset, but lacking
the rest? Ninety-eight percent pick A. Add to this that
97 percent said it is more likely that a person with the
right mindset will develop the right skillset, rather than
the other way around.
Heather: How do you define skillset?

Jennifer: At Smarterer, we define skillset as the
set of digital, social, and technical tools professionals
use to be effective in the workforce. Professionals
are rapidly accumulating these skills, and the tools
themselves are proliferating and evolving – we’re giving
people a simple, smart way for people to validate their
skillset and articulate it to the world.

Heather: How do you define mindset?

Paul: We define mindset as “the lens through
which you see and navigate life.” It undergirds and
affects all that you think, see, believe, say, and do.

Heather: How can job seekers show they have
the skillset employers are seeking throughout the
entire hiring process?
Jennifer: At the beginning of the process, seekers
can showcase the skills they have by incorporating
them, such as their Smarterer scores, throughout
their professional and personal brand materials. They
should be articulating their skills in their resume, cover
letter, LinkedIn profile, blog, website - everywhere
they express their professional identity.

Heather: How can job seekers show they have
the mindset employers are seeking throughout
the entire hiring process?
Paul: One of the most head-spinning studies
we did, which was conducted by an independent
statistician showed that, out of 30,000 CVs/resumes,
when you look at who gets the job and who does not:

A. The conventional wisdom fails (at best). None
of the classic, accepted advice, like using action verbs
or including hobbies/interests actually made any
difference.

B. The only factor that made the difference was
that those who had one of the 72 mindset qualities
from our master model, articulated in their CV/resume,
in a specific way, were three times as likely to get the
job. Furthermore, those who had two or more of these
statements, were seven times more likely to get the
job, often over other more qualified candidates.
Available at: .Retrieved on: 17 Sept. 2011. Adapted.



In "Furthermore, those who had two or more of these statements were seven times more likely to get the job" (lines 87-89), Furthermore can be substituted, without change in meaning, by

a) Instead
b) However
c) Besides
d) Therefore
e) On the other hand

A resposta correta é:

Another one bites the dust

Source: www.economist.com

Apr 27th, 2012 (Adapted)


Less than three months after it took office, Romania´s government has fallen. The centre-right administration lost a no-confidence vote filed by the left-wing opposition. When the motion was originally filed few thought the government was in danger. But in recent weeks it has been weakened by a series of defections.
“Today there was justice,” celebrated Victor Ponta, leader of the centre-left Social-Liberal Union (USL), after securing 235 votes in favour of his motion, four more than he needed. “We don´t want any more dubious firms, no more selling under the market price and huge bribes,” he said in a five-hour long debate that preceded the vote.
Traian Basescu, the president and main political player in Romania, proposed Mr Ponta as prime minister back in February when the previous government, led by Emil Boc, resigned after three weeks of street protests denouncing party cronyism, incompetence and harsh austerity measures. Mr Ponta refused, but now he seems more willing to step in thanks to the fair-weather politicians who have flocked to his party from the centre-right.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF), which began an official visit to Romania earlier this week to review the country´s performance linked to a 5 billion euro credit line it was granted last year, announced it would suspend its mission until a new government is in place. That may not take long. But with Romanian governments showing the longevity of mayflies, and the European Union (EU) weary of a country that seems unable or unwilling to make serious progress on the corruption problems that continue to plague it five years after it was accepted into the club, it will take a good deal longer for Romania to acquire the clout that should come naturally to an EU country with 22m people.



According to paragraph 4,

a) Romanians have succeeded in their struggle against corrupt practices.
b) the IMF has denied the 5 billion euro credit line agreed upon.
c) the new government will have to be recognized by the IMF.
d) the EU recognizes the steps taken by Romania so as to fight corruption.
e) Romania has still not obtained the political influence it could.

A resposta correta é:

Brazil´s big challenge ahead of Rio 2016

Source: www.guardian.com.uk (Adapted )

Aug 26th, 2012


Many Brazilians watched the closing ceremony of the London Olympics with trepidation. “Do you think we will be able to manage anything more than a couple of carnival floats, some football and traffic jams?” mused one of my friends.
It is a few years since I have heard such expressions of national self-doubt. When I first arrived in Brazil, almost 10 years ago, the country had just elected its first leftwing president, Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva. Both the currency and stock exchange were in freefall as investors took fright.
Lula"s first term in office combined cautious economic orthodoxy and some critical social reforms. The minimum wage was raised significantly and an innovative cash transfer called Bolsa Família introduced for poor families. A start was also made in reforming the Brazilian justice system. At the same time the government kept an eye on public spending, ran a primary budget surplus and began to reduce the national debt.
These days the scenario has been changing. Economic growth stalled last year, choked by a hugely overvalued currency. This year looks even worse, as export demand has been hit by the global recession. While the government"s success in reducing its still astronomically high inequality was a spur to domestic demand, economic growth was underpinned by the export of primary commodities such as soya, coffee and iron ore.



In paragraph 4, the author claims that Brazil"s economic growth

a) suddenly stopped making progress.
b) is likely to begin slowing down.
c) might remain high through the current year.
d) may henceforth be resumed.
e) was not accurately forecast.

A resposta correta é:

Skillset vs. Mindset: Which Will Get You the Job?

By Heather Huhman

There’s a debate going on among career
experts about which is more important: skillset or
mindset. While skills are certainly desirable for many
positions, does having the right ones guarantee
you’ll get the job?

What if you have the mindset to get the work
accomplished, but currently lack certain skills
requested by the employer? Jennifer Fremont-Smith,
CEO of Smarterer, and Paul G. Stoltz, PhD, coauthor
of Put Your Mindset to Work: The One Asset
You Really Need to Win and Keep the Job You Love,
recently sat down with U.S. Newsto sound off on this
issue.

Heather: What is more important to today’s
employers: skillset or mindset? Why?

Jennifer: For many jobs, skillset needs to come
first. The employer absolutely must find people who
have the hard skills to do whatever it is they are being
hired to do. Programmers have to know how to program.
Data analysts need to know how to crunch numbers in
Excel. Marketers must know their marketing tools and
software. Social media managers must know the tools
of their trade like Twitter, Facebook, WordPress, and
have writing and communication skills.
After the employers have identified candidates
with these hard skills, they can shift their focus to their
candidates’ mindsets - attitude, integrity, work ethic,
personality, etc.

Paul: Mindset utterly trumps skillset.
Heather: Do you have any data or statistics to
back up your argument?
Jennifer: Despite record high unemployment,
many jobs sit empty because employers can’t find
candidates with the right skills. In a recent survey
cited in the Wall Street Journal, over 50 percent of
companies reported difficulty finding applicants with
the right skills. Companies are running lean and mean
in this economy – they don’t have the time to train for
those key skills.
Paul: [Co-author James Reed and I] asked
tens of thousands of top employers worldwide this
question: If you were hiring someone today, which
would you pick, a ) the person with the perfect skills
and qualifications, but lacking the desired mindset, or
B) the person with the desired mindset, but lacking
the rest? Ninety-eight percent pick A. Add to this that
97 percent said it is more likely that a person with the
right mindset will develop the right skillset, rather than
the other way around.
Heather: How do you define skillset?

Jennifer: At Smarterer, we define skillset as the
set of digital, social, and technical tools professionals
use to be effective in the workforce. Professionals
are rapidly accumulating these skills, and the tools
themselves are proliferating and evolving – we’re giving
people a simple, smart way for people to validate their
skillset and articulate it to the world.

Heather: How do you define mindset?

Paul: We define mindset as “the lens through
which you see and navigate life.” It undergirds and
affects all that you think, see, believe, say, and do.

Heather: How can job seekers show they have
the skillset employers are seeking throughout the
entire hiring process?
Jennifer: At the beginning of the process, seekers
can showcase the skills they have by incorporating
them, such as their Smarterer scores, throughout
their professional and personal brand materials. They
should be articulating their skills in their resume, cover
letter, LinkedIn profile, blog, website - everywhere
they express their professional identity.

Heather: How can job seekers show they have
the mindset employers are seeking throughout
the entire hiring process?
Paul: One of the most head-spinning studies
we did, which was conducted by an independent
statistician showed that, out of 30,000 CVs/resumes,
when you look at who gets the job and who does not:

A. The conventional wisdom fails (at best). None
of the classic, accepted advice, like using action verbs
or including hobbies/interests actually made any
difference.

B. The only factor that made the difference was
that those who had one of the 72 mindset qualities
from our master model, articulated in their CV/resume,
in a specific way, were three times as likely to get the
job. Furthermore, those who had two or more of these
statements, were seven times more likely to get the
job, often over other more qualified candidates.
Available at: .Retrieved on: 17 Sept. 2011. Adapted.



According to Jennifer Fremont-Smith and Paul G. Stoltz, mindset includes all of the following EXCEPT

a) professional qualifications learned in a training program.
b) the perspective in which the employee sees his life and what he does.
c) the attitude, personality and ways of thinking that may affect one"s life.
d) an ethical and moral posture which is the support for one"s actions and thoughts.
e) one"s mental attitude towards life which affects how one sees and expresses ideas.

A resposta correta é:

Performance and accountability:
Making government work



Governments have always been keen to achieve
results, but calls to improve public sector performance
in OECD countries have become particularly loud and
insistent over the last couple of decades.
Reasons include increasing claims on public
expenditure, particularly pensions, healthcare and
education, expectations of higher quality public
services in line with rising living standards and, in many
cases, reluctance on the part of citizens to pay ever
higher taxes. Government also has to be more
competitive in the face of other potential suppliers in
areas like transport, communications and energy. It
must show it can do the job it sets out to do.

That is why governments across the OECD have
responded by setting goals and shifting the emphasis of
government management and budgeting away from how
much money to spend towards what is actually being
achieved. New Zealand was among the first to adopt this
results-oriented budgeting and management approach in
the late 1980s, and was followed in the 1990s by Canada,
Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK and
the US. Later, Austria, Germany and Switzerland launched
similar moves, and Turkey has recently begun a pilot
phase of this process.
At the same time, these developments have
pushed governments to modernise their accountability
and control procedures. In particular, over the last 15
years or so, OECD governments have been engaged in
reviewing and reforming the ways in which they keep
control over large and complex operations in public
services and how those responsible are held to
account. Technological innovation and changes in the
size and structure of government, in part reflecting
privatisation and decentralisation, are also playing an
important role in fostering these developments.

But these initiatives have by no means run their
course, and their widespread implementation gives rise
to some fundamental questions. What is meant by
performance in the public service context, and how can
it best be measured? Should a service be judged by,
say, its accessibility or its financial cost, and who should
do the judging? How can moves to increase the
managerial responsibilities and decision-making
powers of public servants be reconciled with
democratic control and effective auditing procedures?

It is clearly not enough to argue that a reform
works because it is based on sound research, or on an
accepted procedure, or indeed that the government
spent billions on its implementation. The main
challenge is how to make reforms achieve their goal.

This is the basic idea underlying performance-oriented
budgeting and management: to shift the emphasis
away from controlling inputs and towards achieving
results. However, OECD countries are at different
stages in this process and approaches to
implementation vary.
Note: The Organisation for Economic Cooperation
and Development ( OECD ) is celebrating its
50th anniversary, but its roots go back to the rubble of
Europe after World War II. Determined to avoid the
mistakes of their predecessors in the wake of World
War I, European leaders realised that the best way to
ensure lasting peace was to encourage co]operation
and reconstruction, rather than punish the defeated.

(adapted from http://www.oecd.org)




The title implies that the aim of this text is to make public administration

a) more representative.
b) less expensive.
c) more successful.
d) less authoritarian.
e) more bureaucratic.

A resposta correta é:

President Obama to Sleepy Air Controllers:

‘Better Do Your Job’

Lisa Stark and Andrew Springer



President Obama lectured air traffic controllers
in an exclusive interview with ABC News, impressing
on them the enormous responsibility of safeguarding
flying passengers and telling them, “You better do
your job.”

The president spoke after several controllers
were caught asleep on the job and the man in charge
of air traffic control, Hank Krakowski, resigned on
Thursday.
“The individuals who are falling asleep on the job,
that’s unacceptable,” the president told ABC News’
George Stephanopoulos in an exclusive interview
on Thursday. “The fact is, when you’re responsible
for the lives and safety of people up in the air, you
better do your job. So, there’s an element of individual
responsibility that has to be dealt with.”

Five controllers have been suspended for
apparently napping on the job while planes were
trying to land at their airports.
The president said a full review of air traffic
control work shifts is under way.

“What we also have to look at is air traffic control
systems. Do we have enough back up? Do we have
enough people? Are they getting enough rest time?”
Obama said.

He added, however, “But it starts with individual
responsibility.”

In March, two commercial airliners were forced
to land unassisted at Washington, D.C.’s Reagan
National Airport after a controller apparently fell
asleep.

Just days later, two controllers at the Preston
Smith International Airport in Lubbock, Texas, did
not hand off control of a departing aircraft to another
control center and it took repeated attempts for them
to be reached.

On Feb. 19, an air traffic controller in Knoxville,
Tenn., slept during an overnight shift. Sources told
ABC News that the worker even took pillows and
cushions from a break room to build a make-shift bed
on the control room floor.

And this month, there were two more incidents.
A controller fell asleep on the job in Seattle, and
days later a controller in Reno was snoozing when a
plane carrying a critically ill passenger was seeking
permission to land.

The FAA and the controller’s union have been
studying the fatigue issue for over a year and their
report finds that “acute fatigue occurs on a daily basis,”
and “fatigue can occur at any time, on any shift.”

Sleep experts suggest midshift naps

Some sleep experts said controllers are ripe for
fatigue because they often bounce between day shifts
and night shifts. “When we’re constantly having to
adjust to different work schedules, our body is always
playing catch up,” said Philip Gehrman, Director of
the Behavioral Sleep Program at the University of
Pennsylvania.

Controllers on the night shift have another hurdle:
they often work in dim light conditions with little
stimulation between radio calls. “That’s exactly the
kind of type of task that’s hardest to maintain, when
you’re at the wrong point in your biological rhythms,”
said Gehrman.
One recommendation from the government study
suggests allowing controllers to take scheduled naps,
with breaks as long as two and a half hours to allow
for sleeping and waking up.

Sleep experts said a long break in the middle of
an eight hour overnight shift would help, but it might
be a tough sell politically. It has taken decades to try
to come up with new fatigue rules for pilots and it may
not be any easier when it comes to controllers.

Available at: . Retrieved on: July 25, 2012.



In the fragments of Text: "did not hand off control of a departing aircraft to another control center" (lines 33-35) and "It has taken decades to try to come up with new fatigue rules for pilots" (lines 71-72), the expressions hand off and come up with mean, respectively,

a) introduce - exclude
b) impose - produce
c) request - discard
d) transfer - create
e) assign - avoid

A resposta correta é:

Performance and accountability:
Making government work



Governments have always been keen to achieve
results, but calls to improve public sector performance
in OECD countries have become particularly loud and
insistent over the last couple of decades.
Reasons include increasing claims on public
expenditure, particularly pensions, healthcare and
education, expectations of higher quality public
services in line with rising living standards and, in many
cases, reluctance on the part of citizens to pay ever
higher taxes. Government also has to be more
competitive in the face of other potential suppliers in
areas like transport, communications and energy. It
must show it can do the job it sets out to do.

That is why governments across the OECD have
responded by setting goals and shifting the emphasis of
government management and budgeting away from how
much money to spend towards what is actually being
achieved. New Zealand was among the first to adopt this
results-oriented budgeting and management approach in
the late 1980s, and was followed in the 1990s by Canada,
Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK and
the US. Later, Austria, Germany and Switzerland launched
similar moves, and Turkey has recently begun a pilot
phase of this process.
At the same time, these developments have
pushed governments to modernise their accountability
and control procedures. In particular, over the last 15
years or so, OECD governments have been engaged in
reviewing and reforming the ways in which they keep
control over large and complex operations in public
services and how those responsible are held to
account. Technological innovation and changes in the
size and structure of government, in part reflecting
privatisation and decentralisation, are also playing an
important role in fostering these developments.

But these initiatives have by no means run their
course, and their widespread implementation gives rise
to some fundamental questions. What is meant by
performance in the public service context, and how can
it best be measured? Should a service be judged by,
say, its accessibility or its financial cost, and who should
do the judging? How can moves to increase the
managerial responsibilities and decision-making
powers of public servants be reconciled with
democratic control and effective auditing procedures?

It is clearly not enough to argue that a reform
works because it is based on sound research, or on an
accepted procedure, or indeed that the government
spent billions on its implementation. The main
challenge is how to make reforms achieve their goal.

This is the basic idea underlying performance-oriented
budgeting and management: to shift the emphasis
away from controlling inputs and towards achieving
results. However, OECD countries are at different
stages in this process and approaches to
implementation vary.
Note: The Organisation for Economic Cooperation
and Development ( OECD ) is celebrating its
50th anniversary, but its roots go back to the rubble of
Europe after World War II. Determined to avoid the
mistakes of their predecessors in the wake of World
War I, European leaders realised that the best way to
ensure lasting peace was to encourage co]operation
and reconstruction, rather than punish the defeated.

(adapted from http://www.oecd.org)




The recommendation of this text is that governments should shift their focus from

a) reform to stability.
b) efficiency to stagnation.
c) higher to lower taxation.
d) spending to accomplishments.
e) nationalization to privatization.

A resposta correta é:

President Obama to Sleepy Air Controllers:

‘Better Do Your Job’

Lisa Stark and Andrew Springer



President Obama lectured air traffic controllers
in an exclusive interview with ABC News, impressing
on them the enormous responsibility of safeguarding
flying passengers and telling them, “You better do
your job.”

The president spoke after several controllers
were caught asleep on the job and the man in charge
of air traffic control, Hank Krakowski, resigned on
Thursday.
“The individuals who are falling asleep on the job,
that’s unacceptable,” the president told ABC News’
George Stephanopoulos in an exclusive interview
on Thursday. “The fact is, when you’re responsible
for the lives and safety of people up in the air, you
better do your job. So, there’s an element of individual
responsibility that has to be dealt with.”

Five controllers have been suspended for
apparently napping on the job while planes were
trying to land at their airports.
The president said a full review of air traffic
control work shifts is under way.

“What we also have to look at is air traffic control
systems. Do we have enough back up? Do we have
enough people? Are they getting enough rest time?”
Obama said.

He added, however, “But it starts with individual
responsibility.”

In March, two commercial airliners were forced
to land unassisted at Washington, D.C.’s Reagan
National Airport after a controller apparently fell
asleep.

Just days later, two controllers at the Preston
Smith International Airport in Lubbock, Texas, did
not hand off control of a departing aircraft to another
control center and it took repeated attempts for them
to be reached.

On Feb. 19, an air traffic controller in Knoxville,
Tenn., slept during an overnight shift. Sources told
ABC News that the worker even took pillows and
cushions from a break room to build a make-shift bed
on the control room floor.

And this month, there were two more incidents.
A controller fell asleep on the job in Seattle, and
days later a controller in Reno was snoozing when a
plane carrying a critically ill passenger was seeking
permission to land.

The FAA and the controller’s union have been
studying the fatigue issue for over a year and their
report finds that “acute fatigue occurs on a daily basis,”
and “fatigue can occur at any time, on any shift.”

Sleep experts suggest midshift naps

Some sleep experts said controllers are ripe for
fatigue because they often bounce between day shifts
and night shifts. “When we’re constantly having to
adjust to different work schedules, our body is always
playing catch up,” said Philip Gehrman, Director of
the Behavioral Sleep Program at the University of
Pennsylvania.

Controllers on the night shift have another hurdle:
they often work in dim light conditions with little
stimulation between radio calls. “That’s exactly the
kind of type of task that’s hardest to maintain, when
you’re at the wrong point in your biological rhythms,”
said Gehrman.
One recommendation from the government study
suggests allowing controllers to take scheduled naps,
with breaks as long as two and a half hours to allow
for sleeping and waking up.

Sleep experts said a long break in the middle of
an eight hour overnight shift would help, but it might
be a tough sell politically. It has taken decades to try
to come up with new fatigue rules for pilots and it may
not be any easier when it comes to controllers.

Available at: . Retrieved on: July 25, 2012.



In Text, in terms of reference, the boldfaced pronoun

a) them in "and telling them" (line 4) refers to passengers (line 4).
b) it in "But it starts with individual responsibility." (lines 26-27) refers to time (line 24).
c) them in "for them to be reached" (lines 35-36) refers to controllers (line 32).
d) they in "they often bounce" (line 53) refers to experts (line 52).
e) it in "it may not be any easier" (lines 72-73) refers to shift (line 70).

A resposta correta é:

Performance and accountability:
Making government work



Governments have always been keen to achieve
results, but calls to improve public sector performance
in OECD countries have become particularly loud and
insistent over the last couple of decades.
Reasons include increasing claims on public
expenditure, particularly pensions, healthcare and
education, expectations of higher quality public
services in line with rising living standards and, in many
cases, reluctance on the part of citizens to pay ever
higher taxes. Government also has to be more
competitive in the face of other potential suppliers in
areas like transport, communications and energy. It
must show it can do the job it sets out to do.

That is why governments across the OECD have
responded by setting goals and shifting the emphasis of
government management and budgeting away from how
much money to spend towards what is actually being
achieved. New Zealand was among the first to adopt this
results-oriented budgeting and management approach in
the late 1980s, and was followed in the 1990s by Canada,
Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK and
the US. Later, Austria, Germany and Switzerland launched
similar moves, and Turkey has recently begun a pilot
phase of this process.
At the same time, these developments have
pushed governments to modernise their accountability
and control procedures. In particular, over the last 15
years or so, OECD governments have been engaged in
reviewing and reforming the ways in which they keep
control over large and complex operations in public
services and how those responsible are held to
account. Technological innovation and changes in the
size and structure of government, in part reflecting
privatisation and decentralisation, are also playing an
important role in fostering these developments.

But these initiatives have by no means run their
course, and their widespread implementation gives rise
to some fundamental questions. What is meant by
performance in the public service context, and how can
it best be measured? Should a service be judged by,
say, its accessibility or its financial cost, and who should
do the judging? How can moves to increase the
managerial responsibilities and decision-making
powers of public servants be reconciled with
democratic control and effective auditing procedures?

It is clearly not enough to argue that a reform
works because it is based on sound research, or on an
accepted procedure, or indeed that the government
spent billions on its implementation. The main
challenge is how to make reforms achieve their goal.

This is the basic idea underlying performance-oriented
budgeting and management: to shift the emphasis
away from controlling inputs and towards achieving
results. However, OECD countries are at different
stages in this process and approaches to
implementation vary.
Note: The Organisation for Economic Cooperation
and Development ( OECD ) is celebrating its
50th anniversary, but its roots go back to the rubble of
Europe after World War II. Determined to avoid the
mistakes of their predecessors in the wake of World
War I, European leaders realised that the best way to
ensure lasting peace was to encourage co]operation
and reconstruction, rather than punish the defeated.

(adapted from http://www.oecd.org)




In the first paragraph we learn that the governments in some countries have

a) been urged to revise some of their actions.
b) privatized aspects of their public sector.
c) implemented a totally different system.
d) been minding the more strategic sections.
e) insisted on raising the standard of living.

A resposta correta é:

Performance and accountability:
Making government work



Governments have always been keen to achieve
results, but calls to improve public sector performance
in OECD countries have become particularly loud and
insistent over the last couple of decades.
Reasons include increasing claims on public
expenditure, particularly pensions, healthcare and
education, expectations of higher quality public
services in line with rising living standards and, in many
cases, reluctance on the part of citizens to pay ever
higher taxes. Government also has to be more
competitive in the face of other potential suppliers in
areas like transport, communications and energy. It
must show it can do the job it sets out to do.

That is why governments across the OECD have
responded by setting goals and shifting the emphasis of
government management and budgeting away from how
much money to spend towards what is actually being
achieved. New Zealand was among the first to adopt this
results-oriented budgeting and management approach in
the late 1980s, and was followed in the 1990s by Canada,
Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK and
the US. Later, Austria, Germany and Switzerland launched
similar moves, and Turkey has recently begun a pilot
phase of this process.
At the same time, these developments have
pushed governments to modernise their accountability
and control procedures. In particular, over the last 15
years or so, OECD governments have been engaged in
reviewing and reforming the ways in which they keep
control over large and complex operations in public
services and how those responsible are held to
account. Technological innovation and changes in the
size and structure of government, in part reflecting
privatisation and decentralisation, are also playing an
important role in fostering these developments.

But these initiatives have by no means run their
course, and their widespread implementation gives rise
to some fundamental questions. What is meant by
performance in the public service context, and how can
it best be measured? Should a service be judged by,
say, its accessibility or its financial cost, and who should
do the judging? How can moves to increase the
managerial responsibilities and decision-making
powers of public servants be reconciled with
democratic control and effective auditing procedures?

It is clearly not enough to argue that a reform
works because it is based on sound research, or on an
accepted procedure, or indeed that the government
spent billions on its implementation. The main
challenge is how to make reforms achieve their goal.

This is the basic idea underlying performance-oriented
budgeting and management: to shift the emphasis
away from controlling inputs and towards achieving
results. However, OECD countries are at different
stages in this process and approaches to
implementation vary.
Note: The Organisation for Economic Cooperation
and Development ( OECD ) is celebrating its
50th anniversary, but its roots go back to the rubble of
Europe after World War II. Determined to avoid the
mistakes of their predecessors in the wake of World
War I, European leaders realised that the best way to
ensure lasting peace was to encourage co]operation
and reconstruction, rather than punish the defeated.

(adapted from http://www.oecd.org)




The underlined word in "Governments have always been keen to achieve results" (lines 1 and 2) can be replaced by

a) fierce.
b) reluctant.
c) diffident.
d) curious.
e) eager.

A resposta correta é: